Arthur stepped closer, bringing the heavy smell of tobacco smoke and cold diner coffee into the shed.

“Martha was a temporary drywall finisher who walked off the build the moment the temperature dropped below freezing,” Arthur said.

“She says she put in ninety hours of specialized acoustic finish work on the main hall that never showed up on her paycheck,” Nathaniel said.

Arthur set his red clipboard down on a stack of framing two-by-fours with a sudden thud that rattled the lumber tags.

“If you dig into my subcontracts, Nathaniel, you’ll be finishing three commercial sites without a single framing crew.”